delivered the response and several in the last few years to president obama who are being talked about as potential 2016 republican presidential candidates and of course after marco rubio speaks there will be another speech given, the tea party response gin from the senator from kentucky, rand paul, the son of congressman ron paul who ran for president. rand paul also considering a presidential run. one of the interesting things, wolf, of course is that plamarc rubio has emerged discussion of immigration reform. it was one of the few ones that there seemed to be bipartisan applause. he called on republicans and democrats to send him a bill in the next few months and he would sign it, of course president obama knowing as you know, wolf, the clock is ticking for action on that front if there is going to be bipartisan immigration reform this year, it probably

has to happen in the next few months and that's one area where i think there is a potential for a bipartisan solution, a compromise to go forward. i don't know if you heard any others in the president's speech this evening where you think there is potential compromise. >> let's see what marco rubio says. he is getting ready too speak now. very curious to see what he says about comprehensive immigration reform. what does he say about guns, if anything? what about taxes? here is the senator. >> good evening. i am marco rubio. i am blessed to represent florida and the united states senate. let me begin by congratulating president obama on the start of his second term. tonight i have the honor of responding to a state of the union address on behalf of miles an hour fellow republicans. i am especially honored to be addressing our brave men and women serving in the armed forces and diplomatic posts around the world. you may be thousands of miles away, but you are always in our prayers. the state of the union address is always a reminder how unique

america is. for much of human history most people were trapped in stagnate societies where a tiny minority always stayed on top and no one else even had a chance. america is exceptional because we believe that every life at every stage is precious and that everyone everywhere has a god given right to go as far as their talents and hard work will take them. like most americans, for me, this ideal is personal. my parents immigrated here in pursuit of the opportunity to improve their life and give their children a chance at an even better one. they made it to the middle class, my dad working as a bartender and my mother as a cashier and maid. i didn't inherit any money from them t i inherited something far better, the real opportunity to accomplish my dreams. this opportunity to make it to the middle class or beyond no matter where you start out in life isn't bestowed on us from washington. it is from a vibrant free

economy where people can risk their own money to open a business and when they succeed she hire more people that in turn invest or spend money they make helps others start a business and create jobs. presidents in both party from john f. kennedy to ronald reagan have known our free enterprise economy is the source of our middle class prosperity, but president obama, he believes it is the cause of our problems. that the economic downturn happened because our government didn't tax enough, spend enough, or control enough, and therefore as you heard tonight, his solution to virtually every problem we face is for washington to tax more, borrow more and spend more. this idea that our problems were caused by a government that was too small is just not true. the major cause of our recent downturn was the housing crisis created by reckless government policies and the idea that more taxes and more government spending is the best way to help hard working middle class taxpayers, that's an old idea that failed every time it has

been tried. more government isn't going to help you get ahead. it is going to hold you back. more government isn't going to create more opportunities. it is going to limit them and more government isn't going to inspire new ideas, new businesses, and new private sector jobs. it is going to create uncertainty. because more government breeds complicated rules and laws that small businesses can't afford to follow. because more government raises taxes on employers who then pass the costs onto their employees through fewer hours, lower pay and even layoffs and because many government programs that claim to help the middle class often end up hurting them. for example, obama care, it was supposed to help middle class americans afford health insurance. now some people are losing the health insurance they were happy with and because obama care created expensive requirements for companies with more than 50 employees, now many of these companies aren't hiring. not only that, they're being forced to lay people off and

switch from full time employees to part-time workers. now, does this mean there is no role for government? of course not. it plays a crucial part in keeping us safe and enforcing rules and providing some security against the risks of modern life. government's role is wisely limited by the constitution and it can't play its essential role when it ignores those limits. there are valid reasons to be concerned about the president's plan to grow our government. any time anyone opposing the president's agenda he and his allies respond by falsely attacking their motives. when we point out no matter how many job killing acts we pass our government can't control the weather, he accuses us of wanting dirty water and dirty air. when we suggest we strengthen our safety net programs by giving states more flexibility to manage them, he accuses us of wanting to leave the elderly and disabled to fend for themselves and tonight he criticized us for

refusing to raise taxes to delay military cuts, cuts that were his idea in the first place and his favorite attack of all, those of us that don't agree with him only care about rich people. mr. president, i still live in the same working class neighborhood i grew up in. my neighbors aren't millionaires. they're retirees who depend on social security and medicare. they're workers that have to get up early tomorrow morning and go to work to pay the bills. they're immigrants who came here because they were stuck in poverty and the countries where the government dominated the economy. the tax increases and the deficit spending you propose will hurt middle class families and cost them their raises. it will cost them their benefits. it may even cost some of them their jobs and it will hurt seniors because it does nothing to save medicare and social security. so, mr. president, i don't oppose your plans because i want to protect the rich. i oppose your plans because i want to protect my neighbors. hard working, middle class american who is don't need us to come up with a plan to grow the

government, they need a plan to grow the middle class. economic growth is the best way to help the middle class. unfortunately our economy actually shrank during the last three months of 2012. if we can get the economy to grow at just 4% a year it would create middle class jobs and reduce our deficits by almost $4 trillion over the next decade. tax increases can't do this. raising taxes won't create private sector jobs and there is no realistic tax increase that could lower our deficits by almost $4 trillion. that's why i hope the president will abandon his obsession with raising taxes and instead work with us to achieve real growth in our economy. one of the best ways to encourage growth is through our energy industry. of course solar and wind energy should be a part of the energy portfolio but god also blessed america with abundant coal, oil, and natural gas and instead of wasting more taxpayer money on

so-called clean energy company solynd solyndra, open up for federal lands for safe and responsible exploration and reform our energy regulations so they're reasonable and based on common sense. if we can grow our energy industry, it will make us energy independent. it will create middle class jobs and it will help bring manufacturing back from places like china. simplifying our tax code will also help the middle class because it will make it easier for small businesses to hire and grow. we agree with the president. we should lower our corporate tax rate which is one of the highest in the world so the companies will start bringing the money and jobs back here from overseas. we can also help grow our economy if we have a legal immigration system that allows us to attract and assimilate the world's best and brightest. we need a responsible permanent solution to the problem of those who are here illegally but first we must follow through on the broken promises of the past to secure our borders and enforce

our laws. helping the middle class grow will also require an education system that gives people the skills today's jobs entail and the knowledge that tomorrow's world will require. we need to incentivise local school districts to offer more advanced placement courses and more vocational and career training and we need to give all parents, especially the parents of children with special needs the opportunity to send their children to the school of their choice. because college tuition costs have grown so fast, we need to change the way we pay for higher education. i believe in federal financial aid. i couldn't have gone to college without it. it is not just about spending more money. it is also about strengthening and modernizing them. the 21st century workforce should not be forced to accept 20th century education solutions. today's students aren't only 18-year-olds. they're returning veterans. they're single parents who decide to get the education they need to earn a decent wage. and they're workers who have lost jobs and never coming back

and need to be retrained. we need student aid that does not discriminate against programs that non-traditional students rely on like online courses or degree programs that give you credit for work experience. when i finished school i owed over $100,000 in student loans, a debt i paid off just a few months ago. today many graduates face massive student loans. we must give them more information on the cost and benefits of the loans they're taking out. all of these are key to helping grow the economy. we won't be able to sustain a vibrant middle class unless we solve our debt problem. every dollar our government borrows is money that isn't being invested to create jobs. the uncertainty created by the debt is one reason why many businesses aren't hiring. the president loves to am blame the debt on president bush, but president obama created more debt in four years than his predecessor did in eight. the real cause of our debt is that our government has been

spending $1 trillion more than it takes in every year. that's why we need a balanced budget amendment. the biggest obstacle to balancing the budget are programs where spending is already locked in. one of these programs is medicare, especially important to me. it provided my father the care he needed to battle cancer and ultimately to die with dignity and it pays for the care of my mother receives right now. i would never support any changes to medicare that would hurt seniors like my mother. anyone who is in favor of leaving medicare exactly the way it is right here is in favor of bankrupting it. republicans have offered a detailed and credible plan that helps save medicare without hurting retirees and instead of playing politics with medicare, when is the president going to offer his detailed plan to save it? tonight would have been a good time for him to do it. of course we face other challenges as well. we were all heart broken by the recent tragedy in connecticut. we must effectively deal with

the rise of violence in our country, but unconstitutionally you should mining the second amountment rights of law abiding americans is not the way to do it. on foreign policy america continues to be indispensable to the goal of global liberty, property and safe guarding human rights. the world is a better place when america is the strongest nation on earth. we can't remain powerful if we don't have an economy that can afford it. in the short time i have been in washington nothing frustrated me more than false choices like the one the president laid out tonight. the choice isn't just between big government or big business. what we need is an accountable, efficient, and effective government that allows small and new businesses to create more middle class jobs. we don't have to raise taxes to avoid the president's did he have starting cuts to our military. republicans have passed a plan that replaces these cuts with responsible spending reforms. in order to balance our budget, the choice doesn't have to be either higher taxes or dramatic

benefit cuts for those in need. instead we should grow our economy so we can create new taxpayers, not new taxes and so our government can afford to help those who truly cannot help themselves and the truth is every problem can't be solved by the government. many are caused by the moral breakdown in our society and the answer to these challenges lie primarily in our families and our faiths, not our politicians. despite our differences i know that both republicans and democrats love america. i pray we can come together and solve our problems. the choices before us could not be more important. if we can get our economy healthy again, our children will not most prosperous americans ever and if we do not, we will forever be known as the generation responsible for america's decline. at a time when one showdown after another ends in short-term deals that do little or nothing about our real problems, some are starting to believe our government leaders just can't or

won't make the right choices anymore, but our strength has never come from the white house or the capitol. it has always come from our people, a people united by the american idea that if you have a dream and you're willing to work hard, nothing should be impossible. americans have always celebrated and been inspired by those who succeed. it is the dreams of those still trying to make it that sets our nation apart. tonight all across this land parents will hold their newborn children in their arms for the first time. many of these parents life has not gone the way they planned. maybe they were born into circumstances they found difficult to escape, maybe they have made mistakes along the way. maybe they're young mothers all alone, the father of their child long gone, but tonight when they look into the eyes of their child for the first time, their lives will change forever. in those eyes they will see what

my parents saw in me and what your parents saw you in. they will see all the hopes and dreams they once had for themselves. this dream of a better life for their children, it is the hope of parents everywhere. politicians here and throughout the world have long promised that more government can make those dreams come true. we americans have always known better frchlt our earliest days we embraced economic liberty and because we did, america remains one of the few places on earth where dreams like these even have a chance. each time our nation has faced great challenges, what kept us together was our shared hope for a better life. now let that hope bring us together again. to solve the challenges of our time and write the next chapter in the amazing story of the greatest nation man has ever known. thank you for listening. may god bless all of you and may

god bless our president and may god continue to bless the united states of america. >> florida senator marco rubio delivering the official republican response and offering a very, very different vision for the future than the president did just moments ago in his state of the union address, a different vision and a whole host of domestic issues setting the scene, setting the scene potentially for some bitter partisan battles in the weeks and months to come with a lot at stake for the american people. jake is watching what's going on. jake, this was a very significant contrast we heard from senator rubio as opposed to the president. >> that's right, i am actually standing here right now with the man who gave that thankless task of a speech a year ago, congresswoman paul ryan, republican of wisconsin, chairman of the house budget committee and also of course mitt romney's vice presidential running mate. first of all, you predicted before the speech you feared the

president would take a hard turn to the left. is that what you heard this evening or no? >> in some areas i think he was productive. i thought on comprehensive immigration reform i thought his words were measured. i think the tone and the words he took were productive on that front. he listed a laundry list of new programs that ought to be created. he said they won't cost another dime. the problem is we're already a trillion in the hole, dramatically overstated the deficit reduction of his administration without counting any spending that occurred during his administration, so i think he under played they norm at this of the crisis on deficit reduction which is really threatening to our economy. i think what you got was a traditional laundry list i guess i would say from a liberal perspective of new programs and things like that without really talking about what things really cost and how it affects our economy. >> you did hear immigration reform. >> yeah, i thought that was pretty productive. i think when you have -- you're in the legislative arena and we're trying to get a comprehensive bipartisan

agreement here, the words he uses matters and he used what i thought was a measured tone that gives me a sense that he is trying to get something done, so he is measured words that were productive with immigration and i think that's an area we have a good chance of getting something done. there are clearly other areas we have to work together. what i am concerned about is under played the ey norm at thi of the task, not much work to be done and that's just not the case. there is a lot of work to be done. >> there is a lot of work to be done. he mentioned your former running mate, mitt romney, or i guess he is your -- >> i know who are you talking about. >> as supporting, tying the minimum wage to cost of living. is that something that you could support? >> i have never been a fan of that idea. i think it is inflationary. i think it actually is counter productive in many ways. you end up costing job from people who are the bottom running of the economic ladder. i wish we could pass a law everyone should make more money

without adverse consequences. the problem is you're costing jobs from those trying to get entry level jobs. the whole ought to be to get people out of entry level jobs and better paying jobs and better education and a growing economy. those are some of the things he talked about and i don't think raising minimum wage in history is clear about this, doesn't actually accomplish those goals. >> one other last thing. you talked a lot about the insurmountable task of -- well, the challenge of solving the deficit problem. would you ever be willing to vote for a package that included some tax increases, even if it was just closing loopholes, closing some of the ones that the president talks about on the stomp and corporate jets and that? >> i supported the fiscal cliff agreement that already raised revenues by about $650 billion. >> i am talking about a future plan. >> here is the issue. we to want make sure we have tax reform. he said two things. he want tax reform and close loopholes. closing loopholes to spend more money in washington means you're denying the ability to do tax

reform because it is from these loopholes we do tax reform. by closing loopholes you can lower rates and do tax reform and create jobs and can grow the economy. that's what we're in favor of and lots of democrats agree with us. if you take the loopholes for spending which is what i heard, you're making it virtually impossible to get tax reform. what we want is smart spending cuts, not across the board like he is suggested. we want entitlement reforms, and we want tax reform that of course means closing loopholes so we can lower tax rates to get economic growth. that's the secret of success. that's where there are a lot of bipartisan support for, but i didn't quite hear that from the president tonight and that's a cause for concern. >> we'll have to continue our discussion when you come on my show tomorrow. >> i would be happy to do so. i just committed. >> now we'll throw to chris cuomo for more unless of the state of the union address and marco rubio, his republican response. chris. >> thank you, jake. good plug for the show by the way. joined by juan carlos lopez. you spent a lot of time with the senator just last week.

it is a high bar, but did the senator deliver for his party and for himself? >> marco rubio is a known enlt at this inside the beltway. he is known in florida, and i think his state of the union reply is giving him a national stage. he is a rising star in the republican party. he gave the exact same speech in spanish that he did in english consistent with what he said all along, and he will be a key player in immigration. i think it puts him in a different stage and creates a lot of opportunities for him and for the republican party. >> when you are with him, did you get the sense he has the fire to be out front? >> people that know him knows he has more than enough fire. he has been even though he is 41, 42 years old, he has more than 20 years in politics. he was the youngest speak inner the florida house. he has done things many thought he couldn't because of his humble origins, so he does have the fire and to succeed in the republican party.

>> speaker gingrich, do you believe in some ten minutes senator rubio said what he had to say to negate what the president put forward? >> nobody can do that in ten minutes. what rubio did do is presented himself to the country as a very attractive person, very reasonable person with a very good human story, and i have known marco since he was a state representative before he came speaker. i thought in terms of the future of the republican party, the marco rubio to paul ryan should put to rest any idea there aren't smart republicans with big ideas that are prepared to do things, so i think rubio helped himself a lot tonight and i think it makes him a bigger national player and i am glad that he gave the speech in spanish, and i think that it is going to be very well received in the latino community. >> what do you think, governor? do you think he was impressive and that people who are listening to this tonight may resonate? >> i am sure it will resonate with the right, the far right, but i think he lost an opportunity to appeal to the middle because he started out talking about his family which was great, and then he went

right into over playing his hand. he said that the president believes that the free enterprise economy is the cause of our problems. i mean, that is -- it is almost laughable. once you start down that path of over stating things, then he went and said, you know, that the president wants to keep medicare and medicaid exactly as they are just after the president said he is willing to do reforms, he did this repeatedly, that -- >> call that politics. though. do you think it is just clever politics? >> i think the two reactions you are getting here are where america is, okay? i listened to the prestel us he can do all of these new things and won't cost a dime and to the governor that makes perfect sense. i listen to marco rubio talk about the president's speech made perfect sense. i listen to somebody talk about basic american values with a great immigrant story and i think he is making perfect sense. from our standpoint he is right. i think that is sort of the conversation the country is having literally, the difference

in this case is if mitt romney got 36% of the latino vote, he would have had more votes than barack obama. marco rubio tonight is a very major step back for the republican party to being genuinely competitive everywhere in this country. >> do you think senator rubio could have been a game changer in the election? >> i can't tell because we all learned. we have a whole project we're doing in gingrich productions. the obama people were in a different planet. they did so things so smart and so well thought out i am not sure any ticket and i am not sure any of us were prepared. we were playing good college football. they were in the super bowl. it is a different qualitative operation. >> governor, did you know there was gingrich productions and does that intimidate you sitting next to the speaker? >> it should, right. >> nothing intimidates the governor. i have been with her often enough. >> it can't be that both of you are right. the country is going to respond better to one of these gentlemen tonight than the other. >> we can both be right.

the country can respond equally well. >> you disagree so i must leave you. gentlemen, my point is this. when the audience listens tonight, one of them is going to make a little better sense than the other one. that's the nature of comparison. what do you think happens? >> the president has a live audience. the president spoke for an hour. the president always wins, whether it is democrat or republican, the president win this is night. the question is what happens looking is the speech digested and what happens in the votes? did anything change. if you look, the president won a huge electoral victory but county by county there is a lot of red in the map. it is a divided country. what they're debating, america today, america in the bush presidency, america at the end of the clinton presidency and probably more polarized today. what i like to do is say what changed? what changed? what did senator rubio say about guns? unconstitutionally undermining the second amendment rights of law abiding citizens is not the way to do it. republicans are not giving you that assault weapons ban. what did he say give gabby

giffords a invite, newtown a vote. if the president gets what he asks for tonight, members of his own party are the ones more at risk. that's not saying he shouldn't push forward. if he believe its, push for it. >> in many ways what we heard is same old same old argument we have been having about the size of government, the role of government in our lives. marco rubio says the truth is every problem can't be solved by government. i think at a certain point you have to i understand could of move away from that argument as the governor was saying and you have to talk about, okay, government has to do certain things. it needs to be smarter, not necessarily larger. this is a debate that's going to continue. i agree with the speaker. paul ryan there although i think he wants your former job, i am not so sure he wants to run for president, i think he would probably like to be speaker of the house. i think rubio would like to be president. >> what changed tonight?

>> you have the glory in the moment about what changed about america. who could have imagined we may hear state of the union delivered by an african-american and response delivered by a latino. i think it is a glorious moment and all of us can celebrate that. i thought he emerged as a good speaker. he is known as a good speaker. i think for the first time there may be somebody on the republican stage that it match him in the power structure. just as barack obama came up very short on price tags tonight, i thought marco rubio is extremely short on specifics. he really didn't grapple with how do you solve the problems? how do you apply your principles, senator rubio, to dealing with the debt? how about the second amendment? he was not clear on that. very importantly, how would you solve the medicare problem? he didn't give specifics on that. i think he emerged as personally attractive new figure on the american stage and i don't think he is the savior but he is attractive and i think the republicans, i know they won the

argument and i think john was right about that and many more democrats watched actually. >> head back to wolf. >> thanks very much. i want to go to the white house. jessica yellin getting reaction to what's going on, historic night in the nation's capitol, the president delivering the state of the union address and marco rubio delivering the republican response. what are you hearing, jessica, over there? >> they're pleased with the president's performance here and with the reaction they have seen so far from democratic groups, et cetera. what i took away, wolf, tonight was how relaxed and confident president obama was as he delivered this speech. some things i point out, the minimum wage, this measure didn't come out of nowhere. president obama supported an increase in the minimum wage when he was campaigning in 2008 and then it never came up again. he didn't support it during his first term. he supported it again in his first state of the union in a second term. then on voting rights, this is an issue that touched the

president personally we're told by aides during this last election when he heard that people had to wait in line up to seven hours to vote. on election night this past year he ad libed in his victory speech pointing out it is a problem and something he wanted to address and made a point of bringing it into the speech tonight and doing something about it with the bipartisan commission, and then finally the remarks at the end when he made a passionate personal call on gun legislation for action now. that was a rhetorical flourish. i really don't think we would have seen from him in the house chamber in a first term. that was a kind of thing you would have seen on the trail from president obama outside of washington in a first term and now he seems to have merged his washington and on the trail political persona into a new second term obama per season a he found his washington voice, wolf. >> he will take that message that he delivered tonight on the road. he will be doing a lot of traveling around the country trying to enlist the support of

the american people behind some of these major initiatives that he up wants to see the clock particularing on some of them now. jake is up on the hill widana bach. this is going to be a rough ride because the clock is ticking on a lot of sensitive budgetary issues >> that's right. it will be difficult of course for the president and the house republicans to come to any sort of agreement when it comes to the debt situation in front of them and the sequester. i want to bring in the chief congressional correspondent dana bash here and we talked about how the seating and where people sit is key. you noticed something interesting when it came to where some senators had chosen to sit. >> we have heard in fact paul ryan told you he was most optimistic about what the president said about immigration reform on purpose senators mccain, schumer, and graham, two republicans and a democrat, who worked together on immigration reform sat next to each other and i could see them waiting for the president to talk about immigration so that they could stand up together and applaud.

that was intentional. it was a message that they have put together this bill that they hope to continue to do it and push it through the senate. >> quickly, do you see serious prospects that something could pass not just the senate but the house? >> that's a whoet different ball game. that's a whole different ball game. in the senate they're working together. i was at a breakfast with the speaker this morning that said he actually is also very optimistic about the possibility of immigration reform because there is a bipartisan group also working in the house but what he said is that he was concerned that if either he or the president went too far it would put a stake in it because it would hurt the bipartisanship. >> we'll continue our coverage, our reaction, getting a lot of reaction and a lot of analysis of the president's state of the union address but first we're following breaking news. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> we want to update you on the fugitive ex police officer christopher dorner.

he was found dead, we're standing by for a live news conference in california with details. anderson cooper has been watching this story unfold moment by moment. update the viewers here in the united states, anderson, and around the world what's going on. >> that's a prerecorded picture you're looking at from hours ago, darkness has fallen in the region. we believe the fire is out, the body of christopher dorner, what authorities believe to be christopher dorner has been recovered from the burned wreckage of that cabin. we have multiple sources telling cnn that, although dna confirmation has not been presented, has not been brought forth. we're told by authorities that could take from several hours to several days. we're anticipating a press conference from the san bernadino county serve's department as well as a press conference at lapd headquarters and we're monitoring both of those locations and will bring that to you as it happens. i want to check in with miguel marquez on the scene not too far from where that cabin where

christopher dorner apparently made his last stand and died. we don't know, miguel, whether or not he was killed by sheriff's deputies, whether he died in the fire or whether it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. >> there were reports that they heard what sounded like a gunshot going off in that cabin as they moved toward him. it is not clear whether it was actually a gunshot or something else, just exploding in that cabin. lapd has confirmed to our own tom fuentes it is in fact christopher dorner's body pulled out of there some time ago. we're not sure if they took him up the mountain or brought him this way for the forensic testing. that's one thing they plan to do at some point either tonight or later on. we suspect, we hope at this press conference that san bernadino sheriff's office will be holding here shortly they will be able to confirm with greater certainty it was mr. dorner and clearly because

they're not able to get facial recognition or anything on him that would identify him clearly the damage to his body must have been fairly great, but just an absolutely wild afternoon after he got holed up in that cabin, in that cabin, one deputy shot and killed and another one badly injured. it seemed that sometime after that he tried to make an escape attempt by setting off a gas device or a smoke device and was forced back into the cabin and not able to get out and eventually what set off the fire, it is not clear if he set off the fire or if the gas that the s.w.a.t. team pumped in there set off that fire, but it was the con fly grags that ended, ending a terribly horrible chapter in southern california history, anderson. >> and we should caution our viewers some of these reports are initial reports and so they are likely to change as you well

know as the hours progress and more information is learned and more people are debriefed and some of the operational details and there is a lot we still don't know as you see law enforcement personnel at the lapd headquarters approaching the live shot location and randy is standing by there. this is the first time we have heard from them in several hours. >> yes. in fact, a whole group is huddled here all afternoon. the mayor, huddled in there all afternoon. the public information officer is part of that group there behind me that you saw coming out. they're making their way to the microphone and we hope to get new information. it is unclear if the mayor or the chief will be coming out as well. the mayor came out earlier today, anderson, offered his condolences to the families, those who lost loved ones and certainly all of those people involved in this. it is unclear if he's had any contact at all with the family

members of those involved here. >> i have a couple of quick announcements and quick updates. first of all, let me say that the hearts of all of the los angeles police department, chief charlie beck and the men and women of the lapd family go out to the san better than dean owe sheriffs tonight. we know they suffered a tragic loss and we know what it is like to lose a fellow officer and it breaks everyone's heart to know what those poor officers and their families are going through tonight. on behalf of the los angeles police department and chief charlie beck, our deepest sympathies go out to the sheriff's department and their loss tonight. i want to clarify a few things about the incident that occurred with respect to the shootout and the burning cabin that's been out there. first of all, this is a san bernadino county sheriff's investigation. they have the lead on this particular part of the investigation. san bernadino county sheriffs suffered the loss when the deputies tried to take the individual into custody and they're conducting the follow-up investigation into that incident.

i would like to clarify information that has been put out there or rather some misinformation that has been put out there. i just got off the phone with the san better than teen owe sheriff's department. that cabin is too hot for anybody to make entry. there is no body located inside of that cabin. that cabin has not yet been searched because the fire is too hot as of five minutes ago for anyone to go in there. any reports of a body being found are not true. no body has yet been found in there. any reports that the body has been identified as christopher dorner are not true. no body has been identified and no body has been located. i am not sure where this information is coming from and how it was attributed to the los angeles police department. this is the official point of reference for lapd, so your information should be coming out of the joint information center here. any future information coming about that investigation is going to come from the san bernadino county sheriff's

department and their public information office will provide that. until we have confirmation, a, that a body was located and, b, that that body belongs to christopher dorner, the los angeles police department is going to continue on with its high profile protection detail of our officers. we're going to continue to provide protection to our officers and those families that have been identified as possible threats. in addition, we're going to continue to provide security to all of our critical facilities here in los angeles until, a, a body is recovered, and, b, that body is determined to be that of mr. dorner. until then, that's as much information as i have. we will have another briefing tomorrow morning at 8:00 in the same place. i will give you an update on anything the los angeles police department or our joint task force has to add, information about what's occurring in san bernadino will be coming from the san bernadino county sheriff's department. i have a quick moment to take a question or two. i have a spanish speaker here that will answer questions in spanish as soon as i am done. quick questions, one or two and i can answer them.

>> that was a mistake. if someone said that it was all clear two hours ago, that was a mistake. as i mentioned earlier, that burned cabin has not even been entered by investigators yet. the cabin is still too hot as of about eight minutes ago for our officers to go inside or for the san bernadino county sheriff's officers to go inside. we're still on a holding pattern to search that and see if there is a body in there and if there is a body in there to determine if it is christopher dorner. let me add that recovering bodies out of burned buildings as you may know is difficult and it is difficult to identify the remains of someone in a building and that could take days or weeks to do a dna analysis or forensic dental analysis depending on the condition of the body. >> tell us about the investigation, 1,054 clues and why you're still chasing down the leads, sir. >> until mr. dorner has been identified as either deceased or he has handcuffs on him and sitting in a jail, we're going to continue as though he is

still out there. we want to make sure and on an abundance of precaution that make sure that all of our officers and the citizens in los angeles are safe. >> are you looking for accomplices? >> as the investigation unfolds, anybody that assisted him in hietding from the police department, assisted him in avoiding capture or in any way is criminally culpable and i can assure you the los angeles police department and the district attorney's office will leave no stone unturned to find out if in fact someone was assisting this man in his terrible crimes and his eluding capture. okay. last question. >> we are still on tactical alert and maintaining high profile in all of our facilities to make sure they're secure and still maintaining security on protected employees. i will turn it over to the spanish speaker for a few minutes here.

>> just heard from commander andrew smith of the los angeles police department saying that despite what cnn and a number of news agencies have reported based on multiple sources they say no search has been made of that cabin, that it is simply too hot. he said as of eight minutes ago when he talked to the sheriff's department which is the lead investigative agency on this site, it is simply too hot to go in and search for a body. therefore he says no body has been found in the wreckage because there has been no search and certainly no identification has been made. he said any form of identification because of the difficulty of finding a body in a fire like this might take days and or weeks. tom fuentes, former fbi assistant director is joining us now. you heard from multiple sources there was identification. what do you make of what the lapd is saying? >> i find it very interesting. reports had come out supposedly from officers at the scene that they had made an identification or at least one officer had

identified a body at the scene as dorner. that's what was coming out to a number of people, you know, a number of people, and including the media, so the fact now that they're saying otherwise will have to wait and see what turns out here>> it has been a difficult die for them not only because of the nature of the operation but they lost one officer and another officer is in surgery and expected to recover. obviously they're suffering a great loss in that area as well as having to mount this investigation now. what are the steps? what takes place now? if they say the structure is too hot to search, what is the procedure? what does the rest of the night look like? >> it looks like sitting and waiting and keeping an eye on that place that no one leaves even though it would look like it would be impossible at this

point for somebody to survive, do you have multiple buildings and it appears from the earlier picture that is not every building that was part of that so it will be to keep it surrounded and sit on it and wait until tomorrow morning and if they're able to get the fire department on it and try to cool that down and try to put the fire out and at some point they have to wait for it to get cool enough to go in. normally that could take more than one day. we'll see what happens tomorrow morning. >> just to clarify the information that you had been hearing, was this based on just one officer on scene saying that ownerer had been found? >> i don't know. from past experience it could be as little as that, one person sending it out and then multiple people hear it and instead of it attributed back to the original person, it sounds like multiple people reporting it. so that's what was being said and sounded pretty well and i think the other issue with this

is that i look at the scene and looked at it earlier and said what has not been happening and that is if there is no body in that location and they think there is a possibility he got out, why weren't hundreds of people -- what you don't see is hundreds of police officers searching that mountain. you don't see the roadblocks being maintained or intensified. you don't see additional resources arriving to relieve the officers that have been working around the clock so there is a number of things not taking place that indicate to me just by observation that they believe this could be over, and to say that there is no body in that location or not located yet, i think it is difficult to say exactly how they're trying to put it that, all right, if there is a body still in there, if they have to wait until the embers cool to go in there, so be it, but just watching this, i can't imagine that if they thought there was any possibility that dorner survived

or got out thereof and sapd and ran through the police line, then you wouldn't see this relaxed stance that's going on at that location. you wouldn't see everybody acting as if it has been resolved if it is not resolved, so i am going as much by the body language of people at the scene as much as what's being said publicly. >> also we know that they have not allowed fire fighting vehicles to enter the area and last report an hour or so ago is not only are the roadblocks lifted, they were allowing fire vehicles go up there and that would indicate a certain level of comfort and whether or not they started pouring water on the structure we don't have visual on the scene because the images we're seeing were taken earlier in the day because it is too dark to get an over head vantage point. do you know the specific report that had been allegedly or may have come from one officer on

the scene or one person on the scene, was there any level of detail to it about where a body might have been found because i know from talking to the family that owns this structure, they said not only there was a one level structure about 800 square feet i believe it was and then a basement structure that was big enough to stand in as well as an attic space? >> no. there was no specifics as to that and also you had the statement from the marshal in los angeles that dorner tried to escape from that building, shots were exchanged, and used the expression he was pushed back in. i think what he meant is when fire was returned he retreated back into the cabin and i think that was another indication that he did not get away. that you have officers observing him, reentering the cabin, by whatever circumstance happened and in a situation like that if the police were shooting at him as he is retreating to the cabin, and the cabin probably has thin wooden walls, there is

a good possibility he was shot in that exchange and was diving back into the cabin already wounded and possibly mortally wounded. that's another indication he did not get away. >> i should also say i saw a more recent report from the l.a. times that may raise questions about whether there was an attempt by him to escape through the back. again, a lot of these are initial reports and as we know from war zones and also from interactions like this, often the initial reports turn out to be false as more people are debriefed. we're trying to learn more. >> that's true, and, anderson, if i can add in a command post situation if one of the things that happens when every agency is trying to be as open and cooperative as possible with each other, if a piece of false information comes in, and gets disseminated, then the fact it is going to many different agencies make it is look all the more real. so that's one aspect, a negative aspect if you will of information being immediately shared with other agencies because if that information

turns out to not be exactly accurate, there has been a widespread of bad news. >> tom, hold on if you will for just a second. randi kaye down monitoring the lapd press conference has new information. what are you hearing? >> anderson, i just pulled the public information officer andrew smith aside after that press conference just to clear up is there a body, is there not a body, and he said he was talking to a gentleman, an officer standing right in ex to the burned out cabin and he was looking at the embers and the fire and the heat and he said there was no way anybody was able to go inside there. he said he is not even sure if they'll be able to get in there tonight as much as they would like to. they may have to wait until daylight to see what they're dealing with and even once they get in before they can remove any body if there is one they would have to photograph the scene and that will take hours and they would never have removed a body if there was one so quickly. so it is going to take some time. probably won't have any answers until tomorrow even if they got a body or not and then it may

take weeks, he said, before they can positively identify him as christopher dorner. >> randi, we're still anticipating a press conference from the san bernadino sheriff's department, correct. >> that's correct. that's about 100 miles from where i am, and they are expected to speak, and earlier in the night the spokeswoman there had said, cindy bachman, said she wasn't sure if it was christopher dorner inside the cabin, she wasn't sure when they would know and we'll see if what she has to say matches up with what the lapd has to say because the lapd says it is san bernadino county handling the investigation and the follow-up and the positive identification of whoever it was inside the cabin. >> obviously conflicting reports and confusing reports and going to have to continue follow or continue to follow it all throughout the hour and special edition of 360 at midnight with all the latest information. and back to wolf right now. >> clearly this mystery is continuing. we'll stay on top of the story and we're about to get the first

results of the poll of american that is actually watched the president's state of the union address. do americans think he is taking the country in the right direction? we're going to find out plus we'll check in with our focus group in virginia to find out what they thought about the president's speech. stay with us. lots more coming up. surprise -- your house was built on an ancient burial ground. [ ghosts moaning ] surprise -- your car needs a new transmission. [ coyote howls ] how about no more surprises? now you can get all the online trading tools you need without any surprise fees. ♪ it's not rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade.

it's just common sense. all right that's a fifth-floor probleok.. not in my house! ha ha ha! ha ha ha! no no no! not today! ha ha ha! ha ha ha! jimmy how happy are folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico? happier than dikembe mutumbo blocking a shot. get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more.

today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine.

some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. we have the first reaction to the president's speech from our instant poll of people that actually watched his state of the union address. more than half, 53% describe the reaction as very positive. 24% said they were somewhat positive. 22% said they had a negative reaction to the president's address. we polled speech watchers before and after the president's address. after the speech more people believed the policies that will move the nation in the right direction and 71% said that and compared to 65% and before he spoke. this is a poll by the way only

of people who watched the president's speech. we must point out probably won't surprise you more viewers were democrats just as republicans tend to watch a republican president's address in greater numbers. we'll have more results from this instant poll coming up, but there is more here to dissect. let's go back to chris. >> thank you, wolf. our team is limitless. we have new contributors. we have van jones, margaret hoover, cornell belcher and ana navarre owe. did you catch the poll numbers. >> sure. >> do we want to talk about the polls? >> as a pollster i think we should talk about the polls. >> when you hear the numbers, seems like there was a 20, 20, 20 split across how much approval in general. does that sound right? >> yeah, but i thought it was really impressive because only 22% had a negative opinion and the rest was favorable or more than favorable. what that means is in a 50/50 country the president did well

and i think this president actually did something remarkable. he kind of head faked the whole country. they thought it would be a fired up speech and he came forward with very, very bipartisan positive proposals and many of them the republicans have liked before and i think it actually threw marco rubio off. marco rubio did not respond to the president's speech. he responded to a different speech. >> you say thrown off. you are not referring to -- >> not the -- >> no. >> the social media is all about this. >> unfortunately that's what they will remember. >> he reached for a water bottle and he was speaking for a long time. >> we should not give that any more air time than it deserves because it undermines the content of what was a very important speech and response in my humble republican view. i will say what is interesting, van is right. what we saw was classic obama. we saw bipartisan rhetoric in order to cloak liberal policies and it is very effective. >> you were about to say yes.

>> i suspect a lot of eyes didn't see it as bipartisanly as you did. marco rubio, remember who he is compared to. compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges. nobody is going to say tomorrow marco rubio screwed this up. he did a terrific job. he laid out a very clear alternative. he talked about republican values. he talked about free enterprise. he talked about his own roots in a very emotional way. i know his neighbors. i knew his father. i know his mom. what he was drawing from was from a very deep place within and i thought he did a terrific job. >> i have one overarching issue with rubio. before i get to that -- i do want to sort of say that thematically what you heard from the president wasn't dramatically different from what you heard on the campaign trail.

it was the unfolding of things we advanced on the campaign trail and a winning thematic. my problem with rubio and he did do a fairly good job. this is about style. most of the substance ent wo be remembered. from a frame standpoint and as a strategist and not a democrat, you can't look at losing the popular vote in four of the last five elections and then say that your fundamental framework about setting up government as a straw man and the president's for big government and big government is bad and think that that's a winning framework. it just is not. you are not going to win the majority framework right now, the majority that obama majority right now with that rhetoric. the republican party, they have to refresh the framework. they do. >> i agree completely. i think it was the rhetoric on just about everything elsewhere we went wrong, whether it was gay rights, immigration, hispanic, women, that took us down the wrong path.

>> let me tell you one thing about marco rubio. marco rubio is dangerous for democrats. he is dangerous. i was so glad he picked up that water bottle because where he was going, he was getting emotional. marco rubio is to the heart what paul ryan is to the head. paul ryan is dangerous because the strength of his intellect. this is a smart guy, marco rubio but when he connects, that last 90 seconds, marco rubio, he is dangerous. >> you can't disconnect him from the policies. >> i hope he does more stuff like that. his ideas are extreme. the tea party loves this guy. he is dangerous for democrats because he can connect in a way that other people with those ideas cannot. >> you love him so much that -- >> ana makes a strong point. what does it mean the tea party wound up putting out their own guy tonight?

what does that say about rubio being tea party or more to the middle of the republican party and what does it mean about the republican party? >> what it means is when the tea party started in 2010 it was a huge grassroots movement that was very disorganized and not centralized at all, much time has passed that the senate had a lot of time to distinguish itself and to differentiate itself in many ways and marco rubio rode that wave and in many ways he embodies the values of fiscal conservatism and free market economics that will grow the middle class and he doesn't represent some of the policies that frankly rand paul represents. >> i have known marco rubio for 20 years. we have grown up in republican politics together in south florida. him campaigning, volunteering, running for office, always as a republican. marco rubio was a republican way before there was such a thing as a tea party when a tea party is when two older ladies went to drink tea. he is a republican who embraces a lot of what the tea party stands for, certainly the smaller government and many of the other things.

i think what the tea party wants is to keep its own brand, to keep itself alive and relevant. >> hold on that for one second. i have to defer to my colleague, wolf blitzer. going back to wolf now. >> we'll get back to you shortly. the most powerful and emotional moment of the president's speech perhaps came near the end as victims of gun violence stood and cheered and shed tears in the house gallery. the president demanded up or down votes on his proposals to end gun violence. >> along with more than two dozen americans whose lives have been torn apart by gun violence. they deserve a vote. they deserve a vote. they deserve a vote.

gabby giffords deserves a vote. the families of newtown deserve a vote. the families of aurora deserve a vote. the families of oak creek and tucson and blacksburg and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence, they deserve a simple vote. >> the president demanding a simple vote, he says, on some of the key issues involving guns in the united states. let's go back to capitol hill, jake tapburn is standing by with a guest. >> wolf, that's right i am sitting here with david king, the president of the national rifle association, joining us also the chief congressional correspondent of cnn, dana bash and i want to start there with what wolf played.

president obama talking about background checks, tough new laws to prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals, trying to get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets. they deserve a vote. can the nra support at least allowing votes on these issues. >> there are going to be votes on some of these issues and we can't control the congress. the one thing that sort of upsets me a little bit is the president is trying to use emotion to force things through before they are rationally debated, argued and examined and that's a mistake because that's the way you get to bad policy. there are going to be votes on some of these things. some of these things may have more support than others and some of them may drop along the way as we head to the final days of this confrontation on second amendment rights. >> one of the issues that is allowing a vote on these things, i don't want to get too much into legislative minutia but the senate often blocks a bill if you don't have 60 votes, john

boehner, the house, whoever the speaker of the house is controls what is voted on and john boehner has historically not allowed votes on this. will the nra at least allow these things to happen without telling members of congress we'll hold it against you if you allow it to happen? >> if some of these members of congress stuck in the middle and in vulnerable districts do vote, that might not go very well for them in the future. it isn't a question of whether they're going to vote or not, it is a question of how they vote, but we're interested in doing is getting members of congress, members of the senate, to listen to their constituents and to vote to protect the second amendment because we think if you have a debate on these issues and if you have a debate on what's effective and what isn't effective what, we come out with at the other end of this maze that is the congressional bill making machine is going to be reasonable, is going to be all right. you know, the president wants to force these things through, and we discovered just today that there was a justice department

memo prepared less than a month after newtown which suggested that a so-called assault weapon ban would only work if it included forced buybacks, in other words, confiscating semiautomatic rifles and the justice department recommending if you're going to have a universal background check it would have to be accompanied by the accompaniment of a national gun registry. we oppose the national gun registry and certainly oppose the con if i physician skags of firearms legal used by law abiding americans. the president needs to deal with the problem of gun crime. he had with him the parents of a girl shot in chicago. she was shot by a gang banger who was out after having been arrested for a gun crime and in chicago federally gun crimes are not prosecuted so that today the mayor and the state's attorney suggested they had to have

tougher criminal penalties on gun crime in illinois and chicago because they didn't say this but because the feds aren't prosecuting. we support that. >> dana bash spoke earlier with somebody, and he had a question that he wanted to pass on. >> mark kelly, of course gabby giffords husband, you saw him in the pictures. i spoke to him. he said he wanted to know from you is why in 1999 did the nra support background checks and now you no longer do after all of these tragedies? >> we do support background checks in the way that we did then but at that time the nix system was new and we were told everything was going to work fine, the computers were going to work, weren't going to be any problems. everybody that ought to be in the system would be included. we're lobbying then and urging those who have been adjudicated to be potentially dangerously mentally ill should be put in the system and that hasn't happened. mark testified before the senate judiciary committee to the effect in arizona alone there

are over 100,000 people that should be in that system that aren't. our argument is at this point what you need to do is fix what you have put together. we have had to go to congress on occasion and urge the money be appropriated to run that system because it is they put it together and then they let it sit and now they want to expand it. we to want make sure it works and works effectively before you talk about applying it to other people and expanding it. >> david, we have to go to wolf blitzer in studio right now. wolf. >> jake, thank you. we have some more numbers coming in from our instant poll of americans who actually watched the president's speech tonight. let's take a look at the reaction when it comes to the issue of guns. before the speech 61% said the president's policies on guns would move the country in the right direction. that went up after his speech to 70%. the percentage of viewer that is thought the gun policies would move the country in the wrong directions went down slightly after the speech. this is a poll only of people

that watched the president's speech. more viewers were democrats just as where republicans tend to watch a republican president's address. want to share those numbers with you. tom foreman is standing by with a reality check on what president obama had to say about gun violence. tom, what are you finding out? >> wolf, that poll number is fascinating to me. in part because another big bad number that a lot of people here in washington have been paying attention to, 32,000, just short of that, in 2011 that's how many gun deaths there were in the country. two-thirds of these were suicides. if we factor those out we go down to about 11,000 homicides or cases of somebody shooting someone else, the picture does not necessarily get a lot clearer when you try to go through this and figure out how gun legislation might make a difference and in part that's because of what the president has targeted with this along with the democrats. for example, we heard a lot of talk about this idea of going after a ban on some kind of so-called assault weapons, many

voters would say this is a no-brainer. they heard about colorado. they heard about connecticut. they have seen guns like this associated with very big bad headlines and they say why not just get rid of them? well, here is the issue there. would you really make the big difference you would like to make, even people very much in favor of gun control, let's bring in more guns, rifles and shotguns over here if we were to take all the rifles over there and all of these guns combined and put them altogether, those rifles would account for only 4% of this big number up on the wall over here. let's swap that out and go to shotguns. look at this. another 4%, so the problem is even if you go after these types of weapons, all of these long guns over there, you're still going to only touch less than 10% of the homicides that were created in the single year. so what do you have to do? if you really want to go after the number of gun deaths and you think that gun legislation is the way to do that, you almost certainly have to talk about these, handguns, because the

truth is this is the weapon of choice when somebody wants to kill somebody else in this country. 72% of all of the gun killings in this country happen with handguns, so the bottom line is when the president talks about public support and there is a lot of public support, the request he is what policy is that support really aimed at and is that the policy that could actually make a difference? >> good point. thanks very much. we'll have more from the instant poll of tonight's speech watchers and you'll see what they think about the president's proposals to grow the economy and our focus group in virginia is standing by to tell us what they thought of the president's state of the union address. i'm lorenzo.

i work for 47 different companies. well, technically i work for one. that company, the united states postal service®, works for thousands of home businesses. because at usps.com®, you can pay, print and have your packages picked up for free. i can even drop off free boxes. i wear a lot of hats. well, technically i wear one. the u.s. postal service®, no business too small. we're dedicated to getting you back on track from identity theft. to protect you from being a victim in the first place, we have specialists for that, too. ♪ [ alarm blaring ] ♪ [ lasers zapping ] ♪

yep. we make a pretty good team. [ male announcer ] call 1-800-lifelock or go to lifelock.com today.

welcome back to our continuing coverage of the situation in big bear. earlier it had been reported that christopher dorner's body

was believed to be inside the cabin, a body was found and had been removed although final identification had not been made. lapd officials just a short time ago saying that in fact has not occurred and that the wreckage, the burned out wreckage of the cabin where it is believed i made his final stand is still too hot to inner and no body has been removed and the sheriff's officials say it is still too hot to enter and there is a press nrchs going on now. let's listen in. >> learning more about how long they believe this person believed to be christopher dorner may have been at the house or cab oin club drive. >> i have no idea. >> do you know when did these two -- >> does anybody else have any questions? >> can you tell us what that is? >> i am sorry? >> cars are being towed out behind you. can you tell us what that is? >> i have no idea. >> the two ladies -- >> that's not up to me. >> are you saying that reports say the body was inside the

house, those reports are false? >> there was a suspect that far fled into the forest, barricaded himself inside a cabin, engaged in gun fire with deputy sheriffs and shot two of our deputy sheriffs and killed one and we believe he is still inside the cabin that caught fire. >> no one has -- >> no one has been inside the cabin. it is not safe to go in there. >> can i ask you about the deputies that were injured and the one that was killed, did you personally know them? >> yes. i am not talking about them. >> it must be painful for the entire office. >> it is painful for every person associated with the law enforcement family across southern california. they have been working together closely on this search for the last six days. >> have you been here listening to what i have been saying? >> i am getting conflicting information. >> there is no conflicting information. they have not been inside the

cabin. it is not safe to do that. they believe there is a body in there. they have not yet been inside. it is not safe. yes, sir? >> a hostage? >> i don't know anything about hostages. my information is that the victims of the car theft were not injured. >> cindy -- >> i am not aware. i only know there was a fire there. that's the only information i have. >> any idea what type of weapons or ammunition -- >> no, i don't have any information on that. >> a vacant cabin? >> it was described to me as a rental and there was no one there. >> can you reiterate again the rundown? you believe there is a person in there and you believe it could be possibly dorner? >> right.

we believe, correct -- we believe that the person that barricaded himself inside the cabin and engaged in gun fire with our deputies and other law enforcement officers is still inside there, even though the building burned, yes. >> and do you have any more information about the forest service officer that was apparently shot at? >> no, i don't. i don't. thank you very much. we'll put out information if we have a press conference tomorrow and we'll get that information out to all of you. thank you. >> thank you, cindy. >> you just heard from cindy bachman, the spokesperson for the san bernadino county sheriff's department saying they believe that the person whoen gamed in gun fire with the deputies, killing one of their deputies earlier today from the location of that cabin, they believe that person's body is still inside the cabin. they believe that person is dead and their body is inside the cabin and the cabin that has burned down and it is too hot to enter and they have not actually

physically removed a body from the cabin as had been reported earlier. we still have multiple sources who say they believe it was christopher dorner inside there. go to miguel marquez standing by listening to the press conference. obviously confusing and conflicting information, miguel. try to explain to the viewers what we know, what we don't know, and what is believed from other sources you're hearing from. >> i think why it is conflicting and confusing is the sheriff's office wants to make sure 110% that it is in fact christopher dorner in that cabin. it is a very sensitive time. they have lost one of their own and another one is probably coming out of surgery now or still in surgery and it has been a very tough week for law enforcement community across the entire southern california. a lot of people have looking for this guy and there is a lot of excitement to get the news out they do in fact have him and i have it from a federal official and tom fuentes has it from federal official that is spoke to lapd officials that it is in

fact christopher dorner in that house. his cell phone, something i learned earlier in the day, his cell phone popped on at one point after he engaged the wardens, the fish and game wardens and it is possible that that somebody was able to get in contact with him and actually confirm at least by voice that it was in fact him. the other glaring huge piece of information we have here is we are at -- this was a giant roadblock just a couple of hours ago and now every single member of law enforcement left and they clearly do not believe that mr. dorner presents any threat to this area anymore. just unbelievably horrible tragic day that has unfolded here after he reared his ugly head again, killed a sheriff's deputy and wounded another one. >> seems to clear it up.

seems they want to be extra careful they have all of their eyes dotted and t's crossed before in fact confirming it is the body of the man they have been looking for christopher dorner. we'll have continuing coverage 13 minutes from now and a live edition of 360 through to the 1 a.m. hour. back to wolf blitzer now. >> thanks very much. getting back to the state of the union address, the cnn team has assembled a focus group of republicans, democrats, and independents, all of them found something they liked in the president's speech and wasn't all the same. you'll hear from the focus group when we come back.

more reaction to the president's state of the union address. a close look at how our focus group of virginia voters responded to the president's speech tonight. we measured their reaction while they watched. the blue line represents democrats. the red line is republicans. the yellow line is for independents, and they all managed to find something they liked. take a look at this. here is the president's best moment of the night with independent voters that happened at around 9:55 when the president spoke about afghanistan and bringing more u.s. troops home. >> tonight i can announce that over the next year another

34,000 american troops will come home from afghanistan. this draw down will continue and by the end of next year our war in afghanistan will be over. >> there is a lot of republicans certainly didn't agree with and a few exceptions. one happened at 9:48 when the president spoke about immigration reform and what he sees as a pathway to citizenship. >> real reform means establishing a responsible pathway to earn citizenship. a path that includes passing a background check, paying taxes, and a meaningful penalty, learning english, and going to the back of the line behind the folks trying to come here legally. and real reform means fixing the legal immigration system to cut waiting periods and attract the

highly skilled entrepreneurs and engineers that will help create jobs and grow our economy. >> speaker john boehner applauding. democrats gave the president high marks overall and the strongest moment came at 10:10 when he spoke about guns and mentioned some of the most well known shooting victims. >> hidiya's parents are in the chamber along with more than two dozen americans whose lives have been torn apart by gun violence. they deserve a vote. they deserve a vote. they deserve a vote.

gabby giffords deserves a vote. the families of newtown deserve a vote. >> erin burnett is with the focus group in virginia joining us now. pretty fascinating stuff. >> it was pretty fascinating stuff. we're here at the university of richmond with folks, thank you so much for your patience with all the breaking news we have had on cnn. let me start by a show of hands how many of you thought the president did a good job? wolf, that should give you a sense of how things were, pretty overwhelming. a lot of you might say they're all democrats. not true. 12 of them are democrats. 12 of them are independents and eight of them are republicans. the president got a lot of bipartisan support in this room and the high for the democrats that you just heard wolf play was about gun control. it was about that moment talking about how the girl that performed at his inauguration and i want to go to manuel, an independent. tell me why what you thought

what the president said so was compelling. >> i thought that he captured the frustration of the nation in the inability to make sensible laws. i have friends that own guns. i think even they understand that it is important to keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill and those people who are criminals. and any law that is we can make to at least prevent those kinds of things i think is high time and i think the nation is ready for that law. i think obama captured that mood. >> thank you. others had said here, wolf, they like what the president was saying, put it to a vote, up or down vote, vote how you want on background check but have the courtesy, congress, of having a vote. i want to go to talk about the high for republicans and the high for republicans was on border security. talking about background checks, taxes, meaningful penalties and earn willing english. you heard john boehner as wolf said applauding, one of the few times he actually did. you're also a republican.

and that was the high for you. >> yes. >> what did you like about what the president said about immigration? >> i appreciated that he spoke about border security and homeland security and enforcement in addition to immigration reform. obviously america is a great place for people to immigrate to legally but i appreciated his focus on enforcing the laws that we have and the borders that we have. >> and then one other thing i wanted to highlight. a lot of people here are other things they were interested in. one of them is when the president was talking about terrorism. there were democrats here a little concerned about that because they felt that perhaps he was referring to drone policy so we had a conversation here in the room about that and about the president's kill list. another thing, though, is on the economy. i want to highlight this, wolf, in terms of everybody approved of his view on immigration, troop withdrawal, education, overwhelmingly in this room and where it is the most split is will the president's policies create jobs. 56% in the room said yes and 44% said no. it is the closest we had and the

area that stood out is minimum wage. a few people were talking about that. let me ask you your point of view and your party affiliation. >> i am independent voter and i believe the two problems with the minimum wage increase is the cost of doing business would go up and that would just be passed on to the consumer, so hamburgers would go from 6 bucks to 9 bucks and the other problem is entry level wage for young people coming into the workforce won't be able to make that barrier at $9 an hour. >> i want to make a point, wolf. a lot of people brought this up. independents and republicans were the only one that is didn't like what the president had to say about minimum wage. there wasn't a single democrat here that said they had a problem with the comment. let me give you each a chance since you all overwhelmingly approved of the president, marco rubio, you also had a chance to watch him and rate every moment of his speech. how many of you thought marco rubio did a good job? as you can see, some, but not as many. why did you think so?

>> it is a tough job, and he hadn't done a whole lot of that before so typically the response is, you know, tough to do. i thought he did a fine job. >> even though he needed a drink of water. >> my mouth is dry right now, too. i could use a drink of water. >> people can get nervous. they say polar spring may have been the biggest winner tonight. thanks to all of you. we appreciate you coming out and your patience tonight. wolf, send it back to the studio. >> thanks all of the folks for sticking around and helping us and i appreciate their reaction to what the president had to say. we're watching what's going on, the reaction, the breaking news coming out of southern california right now and right at the top of the hour in about a minute or so we'll have a special edition of aac 360. anderson cooper is standing by until then. i am wolf blitzer. coverage continues right after this. ouncer ] at his current pace, bob will retire when he's 153,